Birthday Wishes

Box of candy from my friend, Satoko.

Candy inside the box (before it disappeared. Yummm).

Receiving a special box of chocolate from my pen pal, Satoko, in Japan has become a fond birthday tradition. This year I was able to use self-discipline to make the chocolate last almost a week. The little "cat" note card that came with the box has special significance for me since I had a black cat for nearly 20 years.

The chocolate from Japan was the high point of an otherwise very disappointing birthday for me this year (although any time one reaches another birthday it is a reason to be grateful). My birthday in February was on a Friday this year. So it was just another day at work for me. Of course, several in my family emailed or left voice messages for me-that was nice.

The main celebration of my birthday this year occurred the next day because it was a Saturday. The day started off bizarrely with my apartment building losing heat (and hot water) which apparently was related to the fire alarm system activating 3 times. Fortunately, no fire. But had to call 911 before the public fire department responded.

My son and I enjoyed watching his former high school's hockey team get slaughtered 11-2. You certainly could not claim it was a boring game.

After the game, we had lunch at a favorite burger joint, Plan B. But that turned out to be a downer when my son didn't get what he wanted and the ambient noise was so loud that it was difficult to have a conversation. That was probably the last time we'll go there.

Overall, the color for this birthday was BLUE. It didn't help that a gift from my mom arrived AFTER my birthday and it was totally something different than I had suggested (and was actually stupid food items that I had explicitly indicated I had no interest in)...very discouraging.

A couple of nice gifts from a FEW of my siblings (Cash, sheet of commemorative stamps) and the arrival of the box of candy from Japan salvaged somewhat this year's birthday. Let me be clear: it was not the presents but the thought that counts (and there was little thought). Hopefully the rest of the year will be better (and better). Did I say how much the box of candy means to me? Although the candy is long gone, I still have the box (and last year's too) and it brings warm feelings to me just to look at and remember my friend in Japan.

Link:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2014/03/greetings-from-japan.html

Written Saturday June 6, 2015.